There seems to be a need for entrepreneurs to brand their business by describing it.

I suppose they’re afraid people won’t know what they do if the name doesn’t describe the offering. I’d be more afraid that the name doesn’t differentiate the business from its competitors.

Once you name the business or service descriptively, you’ve named a product category, and your name becomes generic and undifferentiated.

You can usually spot a descriptive name without even reading it. It’ll usually be comprised of three multisyllabic words. It takes that many words to do the job of describing a company. And the moment a company is christened with a three-word name, people will start calling it by its initials. One more set of letters for the alphabet soup of anonymous company nick names that mean even less to potential customers than descriptive names.

An effective and relevant name can suggest the product’s major attribute or benefit. It can evoke a positive association surrounding the product. It can promise a solution to a problem or the fulfillment of a desire. But an effective name, one that differentiates and will be remembered, will not define the offering.

Martin Jelsema
Signature Strategies

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